Truly Madly Deeply
by Nightcrawlerlover
Summary: AU version of Helpless from Season 3. Instead of Kralik, Buffy encounters Yami Bakura on the fated night when two men harass her about a lap dance...


**Hey there, my fellow readers and writers. Here's a new Buffy/Yu-Gi-Oh crossover oneshot I cooked up one day. **

**OK, I was watching the part of the BtVS episode Helpless (which is from Season 3 and is the one where Buffy temporarily loses her Slayer powers, so she has to use her brain power to defeat an insane vampire) where Buffy is walking home alone and is spotted by two men, who seem to be apparently drunk. They mistakenly think that she works at a strip joint, and one of them asks her how much money she charges for a lap dance. It was then that I got wondering about something... **

**Basically, I began to ask myself "What would happen if Yami Bakura had come along at the right moment and saved Buffy from those two so-called men?" **

**Then this idea popped into my head, and I found the answer I had been looking for. Of course, it was inspired by this fanfic based on Helpless (but different), called **Knight in Shining Leather**,** **written by **TammyDevil666** on ff dot net.**

**Disclaimer: Genius Joss Whedon owns Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Kazuki Takahashi (also a genius himself) owns Yu-Gi-Oh. The lyrics to Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden belong to their respective owners. I own the fanfics I cook up from time to time.**

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Truly Madly Deeply

_I'll be your dream  
I'll be your wish I'll be your fantasy  
I'll be your hope I'll be your love  
Be everything that you need  
I'll love you more with every breath  
Truly, madly, deeply do  
I will be strong I will be faithful  
'cause I'm counting on  
A new beginning  
A reason for living  
A deeper meaning, yeah_

_Chorus:_  
_I want to stand with you on_  
_a mountain_  
_I want to bathe with you in the sea_  
_I want to lay like this forever_  
_Until the sky falls down on me_  
**-**Savage Garden, **Truly Madly Deeply**

Angel watched as Buffy Summers, who was now eighteen years old and her Slayer powers now suppressed, left his place, hoping that she would be okay and that things would return to normal – well, as normal as they ever got in the city situated on top of a Hellmouth, that is. And in California, Sunnydale was definitely the place to be for vampires and demons, too.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Angel turned, and he smiled. His brown eyes now met a very familiar face.

The white, spiky hair that seemed to angle up like the wings of a bat. The eyes that were the same color as Angel's, only much darker looking. And last but definitely not least were the clothes Angel had seen him wear more than once – the blue-and-white striped shirt, the blue jeans that seemed to go on and on over his legs and the black-and-white striped Converses. To top it all off was the black trenchcoat covering the shirt.

Attached to a brown rope around his neck was the Millennium Ring, which was one of the seven Millennium Items Angel had heard so much about.

"Angel?" said Yami Bakura.

"Hey there, Yami Bakura," said Angel. "How have you been since I've seen you last?"

Yami Bakura decided he would tell Angel most of the details later. "Oh, a little of this, a little of that," he said, putting on what Angel referred to as the "cryptic man" act. Which made sense, since Angel had done that quite a few times in his conversations with Buffy.

"I see," Angel replied. But then he remembered Buffy and said, "Yami Bakura, could you do me a favor, please?"

Yami Bakura's eyes suddenly lit up. Whatever it was Angel had in mind, he hoped it was a good one and that it involved Buffy as well.

His hunch paid off well when Angel explained, "I think Buffy might be in trouble. You know how Sunnydale is after dark and the vampires come out to feed."

Yami Bakura nodded. He had been practicing his Shadow powers by challenging the vampires around Sunnydale to a fight, defeating them with some martial arts moves and then sending them to the Shadow Realm. Apparently the vampires that wanted to drain Yami Bakura of his blood both underestimated him and mistook him for just another victim – not realizing that he was quite powerful.

And they usually paid the price – a high and painful one.

More than once, Angel had seen Yami Bakura be confronted by vampires that posed as customers that went to strip clubs. Once, one vampire, thinking Yami Bakura worked as an exotic dancer, asked, "Hey there, kid. How much for a lap dance for me and my buddies here?"

However, Yami Bakura then turned and, his Millennium Ring glowing, placed a Mind Crush on them before sending them to the Shadow Realm.

"Next time," he hissed, "go feed on some real strip club regulars, you dolts."

Angel had smiled upon hearing those words.

**Meanwhile**

Buffy was slowly walking home, holding her coat closed and hugging her book. She watched as a car passed by, and then stepped into the street to cross it. Near the other side of the street she walked past a couple of guys that were hanging out by a car. They turned their heads to look at her, and then saw her pass by without giving them a glance. They checked her out – but in a perverted way, of course.

One of the two guys then turned back to his buddy, who had asked him a question, which Buffy didn't hear because of her weakened state.

"Let's find out," he said before turning back to Buffy. "Hey, sweet girl," he called to Buffy's retreating back.

Buffy stopped, wondering what it was he was going to ask her. But at the same time, she knew that whatever he had in mind, it probably didn't sound good.

Her hunch paid off when the man queried, "How much for a lap dance for me and my buddy?"

As the man turned back to his buddy and they laughed, Buffy started to turn around, but thought better of taking them on in the present condition she was in at the moment. Instead she turned back and then began walking down the path she had been taking before those guys had stopped her.

"‛Walk me home, Angel. No, I'm fine; I can take care of myself,'" she told herself sarcastically, while wishing she had said "yes" to Angel's offer to accompany her home.

Then, she looked up, and a look of relief crossed her face as Yami Bakura then stepped into her path.

"Buffy?" he asked.

"Hey there, Yami Bakura," she replied. "Glad you came when you did."

He nodded. "I'm glad I did as well." Upon noticing the worried look on her face, he said, "Something happened. What was it?"

The concern in Yami Bakura's voice was comforting. She launched into the story of how her strength had just up and left her when she was fighting a vampire one night, and the vampire had tried to stake her with her own stake, but failed and was dusted. Then, when she tried to fight off Cordelia's aggressive suitor, Guy Matthews, at school one day, he had simply pushed her away. Cordelia didn't like what Guy had done to Buffy, so she had tried her hardest to defend Buffy by giving Guy a few good jabs to the chest even as Guy tried to blame Buffy, which Cordelia didn't believe one bit knowing Buffy had been defending her.

"Now I feel like a normal girl," Buffy finished, "not the Slayer at all."

"Shh," said Yami Bakura, as he had been listening very intently to Buffy's story the whole time, and was now wiping away the tears on Buffy's face with a tissue. "It's all right, Buffy. At least you were honest with me, and I like that. I'll help you get to the bottom of this mystery of why you lost your Slayer powers."

"Thanks," Buffy replied.

He smiled. "You're welcome, Buffy."

A smile appeared on her face as well, but then left as she remembered the apparently drunk men she had walked past only a few minutes ago. "I just want to go home right now."

Luckily for her, Yami Bakura sensed this.

"A good idea. Come on," he said. "Let's get you safely home. I just need to take care of something first."

The look of puzzlement that crossed Buffy's face as she wondered what he meant soon turned to surprise as she turned to watch Yami Bakura then head over to the same men who had taunted her before. She blinked when she saw him punch the face of the guy who had spoken crudely to her about a lap dance, knocking him out.

"Show some bloody respect," Yami Bakura growled before turning to the man's now shocked buddy.

To a passerby, Yami Bakura looked like he was comforting the man, but Buffy knew what he was really doing. It was only when Yami Bakura dropped the man's now limp body next to his friend before turning back to head over to her that Buffy realized what he had done. It seemed to take all of her energy not to turn pale at the sight of the blood that smeared Yami Bakura's mouth.

After wiping the blood away from his mouth, Yami Bakura offered her his arm like a gentleman would. "Come on, Buffy. Let's get you home," he said, all smiles now.

"You killed one of them," said Buffy, awe in her voice.

"Of course," Yami Bakura replied, playing it all cool and nonchalant. Like he did this every day or every night. "He deserved it. After all, a man like that is one I despise because he was never taught to treat a woman with respect. Of course, I've come across other men who have been taught to treat women with respect, and they're the kind of men I like.

"The other one, however," Yami Bakura went on after a moment, "simply deserved a punch in the face. I couldn't believe the nerve he had to say what he did to you. Mistaking you for a stripper and asking you for a lap dance, not knowing that you are the Slayer or that you go out almost every night killing vampires? Well, I wonder, though, what his parents would've said."

Buffy was silent as she processed all that Yami Bakura had said. Finally, she decided that he was right and that he did have a point there. Those guys were just boys playing at being men, and they did deserve what Yami Bakura had done to them, after all.

* * *

The next night, when Angel found out, he thanked Yami Bakura for helping Buffy and teaching those two guys a lesson in respecting a woman.

"You're right, Yami Bakura. Those two guys definitely deserved what they had coming to them," said Buffy. "Thanks for getting me home safely, too."

"You're welcome. And you won't have to worry about Zachary Kralik, either, Buffy," replied Yami Bakura. Seeing the puzzled looks she and Angel were wearing, he explained, "I was able to find him before he carried out his plan of abducting your mother and using her as bait to lure you into the Sunnydale Arms where he lived. Let's just say, of course, that I sent him to the Shadow Realm, since he didn't have a soul because of his being a bloodsucker."

Buffy and Angel looked at each other before smiling. "Good for you, Yami Bakura," said Angel. "I know you'll be there for us if we need help."

Yami Bakura nodded. "Indeed, I will."

After Yami Bakura strode out into the night, his stride reminding Angel and Buffy of a cowboy walking away from a gunfight he had just won, Buffy took the opportunity to say, "Wow. He really is a good friend to you."

Angel nodded in agreement with her words. "Yes. Yami Bakura's a great friend of mine. I don't know how I ever got through the centuries without his help."

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**Well, that's the end of this oneshot. I hope you liked reading it as much as I did writing. After all, writing is not only good for me, it's also very healthy and inexpensive, too. :)**

**~Nightcrawlerlover**


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